Residents and trustees urge DeKalb County board to delay Shabnam Fire Protection District trustee appointment

Residents and current trustees urged the DeKalb County Board on April 14 to delay consideration of an appointment to the Shabnam Fire Protection District board after learning a resident had submitted a self-nomination that was forwarded to the executive committee.

The appeals centered on a shift from what speakers described as a past practice in which a vacancy prompted the fire chief and remaining trustees to recommend a replacement. “I was told yesterday of a possible appointment with a new fire trustee for our fire district,” said Joe Herman, a volunteer firefighter and EMS captain. Herman said the three current trustees were not stepping down and that department members were not consulted before the executive committee advanced the self-nomination.

The request to delay drew similar remarks from other trustees and residents. “In my 16 years of the district trustees, every appointment to the work was recommended by the chief,” said Steve Props, a current trustee with the Shetland Community Fire District. William Heiminger, who said he attended recent Shabnam district meetings, asked the board to “consider tabling the consideration for appointment … until next month to allow for further investigation.” Allison Hinprops, a trustee for the Village of Shabnam, provided attendance records for the person recommended by the executive committee and called those records “relevant for the county board to consider.”

County legal counsel flagged a potential statutory/process problem: if two of the three members of a three-person district board are active firefighters, “you definitely are going to have a problem” conducting votes on financial matters, the counsel said, and recommended the executive committee investigate further. Board members then moved to table the appointment and send it back to the executive committee for additional review; the matter will return to the board next month.

Speakers requested more transparency in the packet material sent to the executive committee and asked that chiefs and trustees be contacted when nominations are under consideration. The board’s action, as discussed on the record, will preserve the current trustees’ positions while the executive committee and legal counsel review procedure and eligibility.

The board did not vote to appoint any candidate at the meeting; the executive committee will reconsider recommendations and may accept additional nominations before the item returns to the full board.